February 2008: Monthly Archive

In the Phone different forums, surur (with the help of marcol) has posted up some fine analysis on the question of all those missing iPhones we mentioned a couple weeks back. The question: whether or not iPhone sales had slumped over the holidays (they didn’t), but more importantly, how big is the gap between what Apple says they’ve sold and what AT&T says they’ve sold. As you can see in the graph above, it’s a big gap that’s getting bigger.

I’d previously doubted that a significant part of that gap was unlocked iPhones and unsold inventory. It seemed like the 1.5 million gap had to be some error in reporting or other such strangeness. But based on what analysis is available, it’s starting to look like “unlocked and unsold iPhones” are exactly what makes up that gap.

The real question, then, is what the ratio is of unlocked to unsold. Actually, the real question is what does this gap tell us about how Apple is going to be able to talk about the iPhone. Read on for the answers to both questions, after the break!

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The headline says it all except the pricing and availability. Pricing: $399.00 US for the 8GB (same as it ever was) and $499.00 US for the 16GB model.

Wait? What? Wasn’t there, like, this big conference not too long ago where you could make announcements about new iPhones? Oh yea, there was, I was there. Guess doubling the amount of available storage on an iPhone isn’t worth Steve’s precious keynote time, (but jiggly mode is?). Anyway, it’s good news nonetheless.

…Since I’m currently rocking one of the classic 4GB models, that 16GB model is mighty tempting. The only question left: will they drop the price on me two weeks after I finally buy it?

(Oh, and the Touch now comes in 8, 16, and 32 gig varieties!)

As expected, Apple has finally rolled out its long rumored 16GB iPhone, doubling the memory found in the present 8GB model, and bringing feature parity between iPhone and its carrier castrated cousin the iPod Touch. Aside from the much needed memory boost no additional features have been integrated, such as 3G wireless, which is rather disappointing given the new product’s higher price tag.

The new iPhone goes on sale today and will retail for $499. The 16GB model takes its place alongside the 8GB model (which remains at $399), and will not replace it, according to Apple. You can found out more after the jump.

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Have a question about your iPhone? Email us with “Ask PD” in the subject line!

Patrick writes in:

I updated to 1.1.3 and love it but now I am being asked for my email [...] all the time when I click on mail and it isn’t storing it.. also it isn’t storing the voicemail password.. can you help me out please so I don’t have to go back to 1.1.2

Eep. Looks like you’re one of the many to experience weirdness with 1.1.3, my sincere condolences.

When it comes to fixing weird bugs like this I am personally fond of the brute force methodology. Plug in your iPhone and sync it up. Next step, make sure you have all your email sitting safely on your desktop email client. Then, in iTunes, click that scary “Restore” button under your iPhone’s “Summary” settings. This will erase everything (including your music) and then you can re-sync it. I’d then recommend setting it up as a “fresh device” instead of telling it was the previous device. You should then be able to re-set everything up, from your music to your contact list to your email.

If you’re not fond of the “brute force” method above, the other thing to try is to just delete that email account on your iPhone and re-set it up. As for your voicemail, well, I guess I’d try to do the same. Honestly, though, I’m going to pitch this one to the Phone different community.

Somebody have a better fix for Patrick that doesn’t involve a full restore?

(p.s. This is not strictly related to your question, but I’d also recommend maybe switching your email away from your current address to Gmail or Yahoo. The benefit is that you will be able to use that even if you switch ISPs. Yahoo will give you instant push, Gmail will give you sweet sweet IMAP support)

iPhone hacker extraordinaire Erica Sadun was poking around the calendar database on her iPhone and found some encouraging tables:

CREATE TABLE Task (ROWID INTEGER PRIMARY KEY AUTOINCREMENT, summary TEXT, priority INTEGER, duedate INTEGER, completiondate INTEGER, calendar_id INTEGER);. - - (TUAW)

Full support for Tasks/ToDos is a basic feature and one that may be holding back many business users from fully embracing the iPhone. Here’s to hoping that we’ll see a 1.2 update very soon with full support not only for native apps, but a brand new ToDo app as well. Viva la February!

I hate to say I told you so… ok, that’s a lie. I love to say I told you so. Google has an iPhone fixation, as Macworld made clear. The latest piece of evidence for their love affair is this NYTimes blog entry, where Google co-president Sergey Brin waxes ecstatic about the Google Maps feature on the iPhone.

Also interesting that that Google CEO Eric Schmidt also chimes in on the potentially awkward fact that Google is developing their own (competing) smartphone operating system. Schmidt’s take - they’ll profit on the iPhone even after Android comes out by way of online ads. They should, too, since the iPhone hits the web more than any other smartphone out there today.

It looks like those crazy analysts who said that Android wasn’t a threat to the iPhone may have been right.

Campfire is a popular web-based project management system for teams - I’ve used it before and will use it again. It’s so chock-full of Web 2.0 goodness that I’m fairly sure you need to wear horn-rimmed glasses in order to get it working properly, but I digress. The good news it they’ve just released an iPhone version of the system — a version that will automatically appear when you access your Campfire account via your iPhone.

So now instead of leaving the guilt and shame of not keeping up with all your work projects on your desk, you can carry it around in your pocket. I recommend your shirt pocket, because that’s closest to your heart, where you guilt belongs.

Launch: Campfire for iPhone - (37signals)